I Held Her Hand
by LonelyWriter42
Summary: The first time I saw Tōya Rima, I though I had seen an angel. ShikiRima


I Held Her Hand

Author: LonelyWriter42

Summary: The first time I saw Tōya Rima, I though I had seen an angel.

Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Knight, Hino Matsuri-sensei does.

...

The first time I saw Tōya Rima, I was just six years old. I though I had seen an angel.

My mother had once been a famous actress that retired against her will when force by her parent when she became pregnant with me, not a husband in sight. My mother had always been tight-lipped when it came to my father's identity, but she regularly told me that she had hated him and loved him in the same breath. To a small boy hearing her hateful words left me very confused about how a family was supposed to be set up, that a mother and a father were supposed to love each other and their children. Of course to the small me, I thought that everyone in the world was just like me, that everyone had unquenchable thirst for blood that only went away when we partook the blood of another vampire but I soon learned that my whole world was very small compared to the real one that my mother had sheltered me from since my birth.

Around my sixth birthday, my mother started complaining about money problems and she started a tradition that would continue until the day she died- firing servants left and right around my birthday. To me, having the twenty-some servants around was normal so when I woke on my birthday, I was surprise to find that only my mother and I now resided in the large house that her parents had bought for her just before my birth. My grandparents were always disappointed in me so they left us alone even when Mother started having money problems (probably because of the expensive beauty treatments she had to keep herself looking the exact same as she had the day she had met my father).

To say that my grandparent's cool attitude toward me didn't faze me would be a misstatement, it was just the fact that at six years old, I didn't know that grandparents were supposed to love you and spoil you unconditionally and that you mother wasn't supposed to sit around all day and daydream about a man that was never coming back.

Instead of a party that birthday, my mother loaded me up in the car and drove us into town, something she had never done. She parked outside a large, brick, and all around intimidating building and ushered me inside. A man on the street had protested her parking right there but she had blown him off like she did with most people in her life. She had swept into the building looking every inch the movie star she had once been, her hair and makeup just so, her dress hugging her every curve, her blue eyes sparkling as she walked over to a tall man in a retro suit.

She had greeting him very informally, making me wonder if this man was my father. I stood pondering this for several moments and then I saw her.

She was seated on a plush couch in an out of the way part of the room, brushing the hair on a doll that looked eerily like her, only its skin was a rosy color where hers was a pale pink, almost white. Her orange hair was gathered up in two ponytails hanging above her ears, bouncing with every movement of her small hand. Unconsciously I moved toward her, almost as if there was a magnetic force calling me to her. I sat down on the couch and took her hand in mine as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do, all with my mother and the man in the retro suit (who later turned out to be Rima's father) watching.

Her eyes turned and found mine, blue on blue as she slowly withdrew her hand. She turned and looked at her father with a frown as if she was trying to decide what was happening when her father declared, "He will be the perfect partner for Rima-chan."

With that announcement, our fates were sealed. I became her modeling partner and she became my best friend, showing me what a normal family was like. Her parents where fashion designers- they had worked with my mother on several occasions- and they loved their child more than anything in the world, a concept so confusing, I didn't even realize that this was the way a family was supposed to be set up until I was much older.

Every photo shoot was new and exciting, the money I was making going to help my mother rehire half our staff, the old butler and cook that came with the house relieved to be back.

My life continued on this course for several more years until my fifteenth birthday. A strange car pulled up outside, fancier than anything my mother or I could afford even with me being a supermodel so I got dressed and was down the stairs before the butler had time to answer the door. My first glace showed me a man that looked much like the one that had haunted my dreams since my birth, a man with black hair and dark red eyes and a half-smile. My jaw dropped and I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't do anything but stare at him. The smirk became a full grin as he walked over to me, the pull of a pureblood's call overwhelming me.

We stood facing each other for several long moments, him with that smile that said he knew exactly what was wrong with me and me with a blank look on my face as I tried to place where I knew this man from. Finally a man that had entered the house after the pureblood spoke, allowing my eyes to take him in. With a jolt I recognized the man. Blonde hair, green eyes and a soft expression not fitting of his highborn status, Ichijō Takuma stood there, watching in deep thought as the pureblood turned toward him.

"The boy will do," the pureblood said, his eyes shining.

"Kaname," Ichijō sighed. "He has a name. It's Shiki Senri."

"Yes, I know," the pureblood, Kaname said, his eyes gleaming. "How would you like to join me?" He asked, turning back to me but this time I could move.

"Where?" I swallowed, glancing around nervously.

"To school." Kaname said.

"School…" I muttered, having never gone to one before. "I don't know…"

"You do not have to if you do not want to," Kaname sighed, almost disappointed and suddenly, the only thing I wanted to do with my life was to serve this man.

"I will go." I said almost against my own will. "But there is someone that I would like to bring."

"Who?" Kaname asked.

"Tōya Rima," I said.

"She is on the list," Kaname nodded. "You will receive information in the mail. Goodbye." With that he swept out of the door, his black overcoat trailing behind him, leaving me flabbergasted.

"See you soon," Ichijō grinned as he, too, left, sealing my fate once again, only this time in a direction I never would have wanted it to go.

-  
The first day of class was boring enough, the other aristocrats around me annoying enough to make me want to strangle them, Aidō Hanabusa in particular. Seriously, what is his problem, anyway?

Rima didn't arrive until the second day that we were supposed to be there, a solo fashion shoot taking her out of the country for several weeks during which I loafed around the house and generally ignored everything. My mother had laughed at my attitude but had left me alone, not calling on the fact I am depressed when Rima wasn't around.

Aidō seemed to think on that first day I needed a friend so he stuck to my side like glue the whole day, not picking up on my murderous vibes. His cousin Kain Akatsuki was also there and helped somewhat to keep the eccentric Aido under control but it only helped to a point. I saw Ichijō following our pureblood leader around like a lost puppy several times that day but I never was allowed to talk to him, especially since I was born of an unwedded woman and the fact she had practically disinherited herself from just about all the large fortunes she was heir to. The only relative that halfway kept in contact was her uncle on the Council of Ancients that wanted to use me though I don't know why; I just get that feeling when he is around.

While I was walking the corridors, I got a glimpse of Sōen Ruka, the classical beauty, who could have taken the fashion industry by storm, but wasn't allowed to leave the night world because of what had happened to her parents. I was only a little boy when it happened so I don't know all the details, but I heard the level E they were watching over managed to escape the bonds they had placed on it. Ruka's mother was killed almost instantly, her last breaths used to cast a sealing curse on the level E that helped her husband kill it, at the cost of his own life. After that her wealthy grandmother took control of her and hadn't allowed her to stray much farther than to homes of trusted relatives and friends so it shocked me when I saw her at the school, acting as if it was the most natural thing in the world to be there without the kooky old lady she called Grandmother breathing down her neck.

My room at the school was about the same size as the one I enjoyed at home but this one had to be shared with another student, much to my displeasure. At least it wouldn't be Aidō since he was already in a room with his cousin, to which I thanked all the lucky stars in the heavens. The assignment of the second student in my room hadn't been decided by the time I got there so I was slightly on edge when I heard the news, which only caused me to treat Aido even worse when he was probably only trying to be nice in the annoying way of his.

The whole group of us met with the headmaster of the school, Kurosu Kaien, about midnight. He man had an almost unnaturally awake look for a human at the late hour leading me to believe that he was much more than he looked. He told us about what we were expected to do and how we were to act and told me, for the first time, that the vampires of the night class were to have no contact with the human day class. I was shocked to hear the news and I could tell by the actions of some of the others that they weren't happy about this rule either. But Kuran Kaname merely smiled at the headmaster and told him that he would personally take care of any problems the night class brought the school. My jaw when slack in amazement, the thought of a pureblood personally doing something that didn't relate to anything important in the vampire world unheard of.

The shuffle back to the dormitories as quiet, the pureblood in the mix enough to send everyone into a frenzy of their best behavior. I, on the other hand, could care less about the fact there was a pureblood in our midst, the mystic-ness of the purebloods lost on me for some reason. The Shiki family was high enough that my great-grandfather was a pureblood and my grandfather only had the slightest drop of human blood flowing through his veins. My mother was quick to point this out to anyone who protested our lineage and her words usually quieted protests, unless you were talking to someone who had better lineage, like, dare I even think his name… Aidō.

As if he had noticed me thinking about him, Aidō turned and winked at me before skipping up to Kaname-sama and starting a pointless conversation about nothing. It was hard to believe that Aidō's body held the blood of a pureblood vampire, his mother being one. How his father who was only an aristocrat had managed to marry and procreate with an pureblood was up for any and all discussion among all families, though my general theory resolved around the fact Aidō-hime had disliked the man her family wanted her to marry so she ran away and married the first man she found, who also just happened to be the head of one of the last vampiric power strongholds. Aido's father had the distinction of having virtually no human blood as well as being the head of a clan that managed to cling to their old vampire powers. Aidō, it was rumored, could control ice at will, the water molecules in the air turning at only a wave of his hand. His cousin, Kain, was rumored to have the exact opposite power of controlling fire, but I wasn't stupid enough to see if the rumors were true. My own body had special vampire trails as well though I wasn't going to tell anyone.

The first time I had shown my powers to anyone would have been when I was seven and after that incident, only three designers would work with me: Rima's father, her aunt, and some kook-job human who didn't seem to find vampires very scary, even when he was bit by one. Maybe his brain was so addled by years of using human drugs to destroy it he didn't even realize that he had been bitten, or maybe he knew who he was working with and decided to ignore the fact. Rima also had powers though she didn't like to show anyone what she could do, the first and only time I saw them is when she used them on me in one of her rages.

We all made our way back to our respected rooms, me alone were everyone else had a partner annoying the heck out of them. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, the extra large bed with its extravagant furnishings more than what I ever slept on so I got a good day's rest.

That next morning I was wakened by Aidō actually achieving liftoff when jumping onto my bed. I stared up at him groggily as he started in on some speech about something that happened to some person some time ago. Needless to say, I was not impressed and rolled over, pulling my blanket over my head. Aidō didn't seem to think that this was very polite and he started jumping up and down on my mattress until I gave him the shock of his lifetime.

My special powers are not something that I like to discuss with anyone much less _show_ someone, but Aidō was annoying me enough that I decided that I didn't care about my self made rule about not showing off my powers. I jabbed my finger into my mouth and tore the skin so a drop of blood came to the surface and the rest is history. My blood can act like a whip when I want it to and at that time, I wanted it to. Aidō jerked back with a yelp and glared at me.

"Why did you _do_ that?" He said angrily, rubbing his now red backside. "You aren't any fun, Shiki! I don't see why Kaname-sama wanted you here!"

"I don't know either," I dryly replied as I snuggled with my blanket.

"I'm going to go tell him what you did!" Aidō cried, jumping away and smacking right into a person in the doorway.

"You are in my way," Rima said with the dark look on her face that she got when she hadn't had enough sleep. "Who are you?"

"Aidō Hanabusa," Aidō said, looking peeved. "Just who are you?"

"Tōya Rima," she said, pushing him aside. "I am Shiki's roommate."

"A girl and a guy!" Aidō cried, jumping up and down. "What is Kaname-sama thinking," he whined. "I want a girl in my room toooooooo…"

"Can it Blondie," Rima growled as she pulled off her shoes and got into bed next to me. "I haven't had any sleep since last Monday. You know how long ago that was? Three days. Now leave."

"I'm telling Kaname-sama!" Aidō yelled as he turned and left the room.

"Thank you," I whisper, letting my fingers trail over her cheek.

"I always knew you would never stick up for yourself," she sighed as she closed her eyes. "That's why you have me."

"Yeah," I grinned as I reached down and took her hand into mine. "Sleep tight."

"I intend to if you would be quiet," she opened one eye then winked at me. "Sleep tight."

The next months and year blended together and I didn't really notice because Rima was there with me all the time. Somewhere in that time the weird tradition of "Who will Kaname-sama leech off of next" started with him decided that he wanted to take a holiday to the countryside manor of the Tōya family. Rima had been surprised that a pureblood wanted to go to her house but I knew the true reason. Kuran Kaname, with all his pureblood, wanted to make sure that he had enough aristocrats on his side to offset the Council of Elders.

Once upon a time I might have found his choices in his allies strange, but after the most major battle that vampires have ever fought against vampires, I understood his almost insane desire for us and our powers. He knew he was fighting an enemy that wouldn't be defeated with only a handful of allies; he knew that without the support of the Aidō, Sōen, and Tōya he would be utterly defeated.

After that strange visit to Rima's parent's country house, the next family Kaname decided to grace his presence with was the Sōen after which an awkward visit to one of Ichio's manors was arranged where everyone though that the walls were going to come alive and squish them any second. Only Ichijō seemed at home, but then again he was raised by the creepy Ichio so that was understandable.

It was during this visit to his family's home that he and I got to know each other better. Ichijō had a natural talent for making anyone feel at home even in Ichio's haunted house. Rima hadn't come with use this time because she had a major fashion shoot so I had just loafed around the house most of the time before Ichijō started talking to me. Apparently he held many of the same beliefs I did and soon we felt like we had known each other all our lives in a non perverted way. He became my voice of reason when Rima wasn't around and my voice of insanity when she was. Our powers even complemented the others so soon Kaname had us hunting together, knowing that if one failed, the other had a chance.

Rima didn't say anything about the weird relationship when we got back and I assumed that she was happy that I finally had another friend. She was always complaining about how I took up all her time with my needs, leaving her none for herself. I always tried to think of a time when I was so needy that I took up all her time but always came up blank so I figured she just wanted to complain. Which she liked to do. But complaining about her complaining didn't get me anywhere so I rarely did.

Kaname's weird, sporadic moods continued and soon the whole night class learned to gage his moods to see when it was okay to do something or hide in their rooms. Aidō seemed to be the only one that didn't seem to be able to pick up on Kaname's moods or maybe he liked the punishment; but Kaname was always lenient with him compared to others that were punished. I was always happy that I never crossed the pureblood because I knew that he could probably kill me with a look if he so desired.

The second semester of the night class showed the world that we were the elite of the elite when we defeated my crazy father and his faction.

I have been forever disappointed in my mother that she didn't tell me who my father was, no, she left it up to Kaname, my _cousin_. It was a very awkward day when I found out that my father was the pureblood Kuran Rido that had tried to destroy the fragile bonds keeping the humans and vampires from war. Of course on the up side I was now of a higher status than the idiot Aidō but I wasn't about to tell him that, it was just the thought that I had a better lineage than him that kept me from tearing off his head. Rima was the only one that I told and even at that she almost had to pull out my hair for me to tell her what was wrong. She took the news better than I though she would; she merely blinked when I told her.

The major conflict between Kaname and my father came shortly after this day and I am ashamed to this day to admit that I allowed my disembodied father to posses my body. And the even more sickening thing was that I allowed him to use my body to hurt Rima. She always told me afterward that she didn't care; she knew it wasn't me, but the thought was enough to send my stomach rolling every time it came to the surface. Even now I still get a funny feeling in my fingers when I see her upset enough for her lightning to make an appearance. My body sometimes still wants to send my blood whip at her petite body and feel her writing in pain, but I have vowed to kill myself before I hurt her again.

My only part in the conflict was to be a vassal to my father and when he was killed by Vampire Hunter Kiryū Zero and the pureblood princess Kuran Yūki I left the school.

Rima protested this move but as the school was in ruins and Headmaster Kurosu was considered a loopy raving lunatic after his school's destruction, it was time.

Kaname had left with his sister and lover, Ichijō had killed his grandfather and then himself, Aidō and Kain had retreated to the Aidō mansion to ride out the repercussions of what had happened at Cross Academy and Ruka had returned to her strict grandmother.

I, for the most part, ignored my former school mates for several years as I traveled abroad doing modeling and not even the extravagant wedding of the Kuran heads could draw me back. It was only Rima that drew me back with the news she was getting married.

I know now that she only did it to get me back to the country, but at that time I seriously was going to gut the unlucky man that thought he could have my Rima. When I returned and learned of the deception I was not happy but Rima applied her flawless logic to the subject and soon had me eating out of her hand again.

I visited my mother for the first time in almost five years and was shocked to learn that she had decided out of the blue to marry… Aidō's father. Apparently Aidō-hime had left her husband to be with another pureblood so she could have the coveted pureblood children everyone in our society wanted. Aidō-san, or Shōsuke-san as he wanted me to call him, was very nice to me but it always felt wrong to call Aidō… my brother. I still shutter at the thought now even after my mother's death. The relationship with my mother remained strange up until her death, me giving her everything she wanted and her throwing it all away so she could live her frivolous life.

Rima tried hard to heal the relationship when we became engaged but no matter how much prodding she did my mother and I remained indifferent to each other. Even after the birth of her fist grandchild my mother remained as air headed as she had been my entire youth and told Rima that she had given birth to an ugly child. That was the one and only time that I have seen Rima upset enough to want to kill anyone. How my mother survived Rima's blitz is beyond me. But the air head survived to see her second and third grandchildren by me and her five by Shōsuke's children with Aidō-hime.

My life quieted down after my marriage to Rima, my soul mate. I still modeled but at a reduced time and I never went on a shoot that took me out of the country. Rima and I watched our children grow and become successful in their own right and several years passed to where I felt my body slowly ebbing of youth. Some three hundred years had passed since that birthday when my mother had taken me on my first trip to town and I had met that young girl with pigtails. I had modeled, been sent to boarding school, fallen in love, been possessed by my deranged father, modeled again, gotten married to first love, had children, modeled, annoyed pureblood cousins, become the head of my own family, and lost the love of my life.

Rima went quickly and quietly on a summer afternoon that had the white roses she loved in full bloom. All our family had been around her when it happened, her hand firmly in mine. Goodbyes were different for vampires then they were for humans. Where humans viewed them as having lost their loved one, vampires see it as the ultimate release. The deceased's spirit was always with their family, watching over them and keeping them from harm. Much of this my children ignored and when my beloved Rima breathed her last they acted more like humans when losing a loved one, but none of this hit me at that time, all I knew was that I held her hand.


End file.
